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Los Angeles Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys
Los Angeles Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
A serious brain or spinal cord injury reaches well past the first hospital stay. Thinking, movement, work, independence and the care someone will need for years can all become part of the case. The Law Offices of Burg & Brock investigate how the injury happened and document what it has changed, both now and over time.
No attorney’s fee unless we recover for you.
Cameron Yadidi Brock
- Role
- Founding Attorney
- Bar
- California #183112
- Since
- Practicing 1996
- 1996Practicing since
- Sherman OaksLos Angeles County office
- No FeeUnless there is a recovery
- FreeConfidential case review
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Reviewed by Cameron Yadidi BrockFounding Attorney, Law Offices of Burg & Brock · California State Bar #183112 · Admitted 1996
The Short Answer
Do I Have a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Claim?
Potentially, if another person’s or company’s conduct caused the injury, or made an existing condition worse.
What makes these cases different from an ordinary injury claim is that proving the accident happened is only the start. The harder work is connecting the responsible conduct to the diagnosed injury, and then documenting what that injury means for someone’s health, work and independence over years rather than weeks.
That is where most of the value of a serious neurological case sits, and it is the part that gets under-documented when a case is handled as though it were a routine collision.
If this is happening now
Some symptoms after a head or spine injury need emergency medical attention, not a phone call to a law firm. The CDC lists danger signs after a head injury that warrant calling 911 or going to an emergency department right away, including a headache that gets worse and will not go away, repeated vomiting, seizures, slurred speech, unusual behaviour or increasing confusion, one pupil larger than the other, weakness or numbness, loss of coordination, and not being able to wake someone up. Clear fluid draining from the nose or ears is another. Neck pain after a head injury matters too.
Where a spine injury is suspected, MedlinePlus advises calling 911 and not moving the person unless it is absolutely necessary.
This page is legal information. It is not medical advice, and nothing here can tell you whether you or someone you love has a particular injury. That is for qualified medical professionals.
Terminology
Head Injury, Brain Injury, Spine, Spinal Cord
These get used interchangeably, including by insurers. They mean different things, and the difference can matter to a claim.
A herniated disc and a spinal cord injury are not the same claim, and treating them as though they were does no one any favours. Most spinal cord injuries do not sever the cord — MedlinePlus describes damage more often caused by fragments of bone tearing into or pressing on cord tissue.
Brain Injury
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
An injury to the brain caused by an external force — a blow, a jolt, rapid acceleration or deceleration, or a penetrating injury.
Depending on what was affected, a brain injury can involve thinking, memory, attention, communication, balance, mood, behaviour, sleep and physical functioning. Severity and effects vary enormously between people, and no page can tell you where a particular injury falls.
Loss of consciousness is not required
This is the single most useful thing to know, because it is where claims get dismissed early and wrongly. According to the CDC, most concussions occur without loss of consciousness. Someone who never blacked out can still have sustained a brain injury.
Whether a person was knocked out is one medical factor recorded alongside others, such as memory gaps around the event. It is not the test for whether a brain injury happened. When an adjuster leans on “they were never unconscious” as though it settled the question, it does not.
Symptoms can appear later
The CDC notes that symptoms may not appear for hours or days after the injury. NINDS explains why: beyond the damage done at the moment of impact, further changes can develop over hours, days or weeks.
Reported effects tend to fall into four broad areas — physical, thinking and remembering, social and emotional, and sleep. The point is not to self-assess against a list. It is that a delay between the accident and the symptoms is medically recognised, not evidence that someone is exaggerating.
“Mild” is a classification, not a verdict
The CDC explains that providers call these injuries mild because they are usually not life-threatening, and adds in the same breath that the effects can still be serious. Their guidance elsewhere is blunter: all concussions are serious.
Most people recover. The CDC also says some people will have symptoms for months or longer, and advises seeing a provider if symptoms have not gone after two or three weeks, or worsen on returning to normal activity. A mild classification tells you about the initial injury. It does not tell you how someone’s life will look a year later.
Spinal Cord Injury
What Is a Spinal Cord Injury?
Damage to the spinal cord itself, which can interrupt communication between the brain and the parts of the body below the level of the injury.
Depending on where and how severe the injury is, it can affect movement, strength, sensation, bladder and bowel function, blood pressure and heart rhythm, sexual function, and in higher injuries, breathing. NINDS notes that about a third of people with a spinal cord injury need temporary or permanent help with breathing.
Not every spinal cord injury means permanent paralysis
NINDS is clear that effects can be temporary or permanent, and that an injury may damage a few, many or almost all of the nerve fibres. Where there is little or no nerve cell death, a person can make an almost complete recovery.
Outcomes vary widely, and anyone telling you what a particular injury means long-term without having examined the person is guessing.
Complete and incomplete injuries
At a general level, an injury described as complete involves the loss of essentially all movement and feeling below the level of injury. An incomplete injury leaves some function, and NICHD notes there are many degrees of incomplete injury.
Where a particular injury falls is a clinical assessment, made by treating professionals over time. It is not something to determine from symptoms or from a website.
How These Injuries Happen
Accidents That Can Cause Brain or Spinal Cord Injuries
The mechanism matters, because it shapes both who may be responsible and what evidence exists.
Responsibility
Who Can Be Responsible for a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury?
It depends entirely on how the injury happened. These are the parties that may need to be investigated, not a list of who is liable in every case.
Identifying every responsible party early matters more in a catastrophic case than in a small one, because a single minimum-limits policy will not go far against a lifetime of care.
Proving the Case
What Must Be Proven in a Serious Neurological Injury Case?
Legal responsibility
That another party’s conduct fell below what the law requires.
Causation
That the conduct caused the injury. In neurological cases this is where most of the fight happens.
Nature and extent
What the injury actually is, established through medical evidence rather than assertion.
Past and future damages
What it has cost and what it will cost, supported by evidence.
How Is the Injury Connected to the Accident?
Through the whole medical picture, not one document.
Evidence can include the emergency treatment record, the timing and progression of symptoms, diagnostic testing, specialist evaluation, rehabilitation and therapy records, medical history from before the incident, observations from family and colleagues, the mechanics of the accident itself, and expert opinion where the issue is genuinely disputed.
Two things this page will not tell you
Imaging does not settle it either way. NINDS states that currently available and clinically validated imaging technologies, blood tests and other measures cannot always detect damage from mild, concussive injuries. A normal scan does not establish that there is no brain injury, and no scan on its own proves what caused one.
Neither does a single test. Neuropsychological assessment can help evaluate cognitive and functional issues where a clinician considers it appropriate. It is one input among many, and describing any test as proof of a brain injury overstates what it does.
Pre-Existing Conditions
What If I Already Had a Brain, Neck or Spine Condition?
A pre-existing condition does not automatically end a claim, and it is one of the most common reasons people assume wrongly that they have none.
The question is usually whether the incident caused a new injury, or made an existing condition worse. California recognises that a person can recover for the aggravation of a pre-existing condition, and that a defendant takes an injured person as they find them rather than as an average person.
What that does not mean is that a responsible party becomes liable for unrelated health problems. Separating what the incident caused from what was already there is genuinely part of the work, and it is done with medical records rather than argument.
Long-Term Impact
How Can a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Affect Daily Life?
These are the areas a case may need to document. No one experiences all of them, and some people experience none.
Cognition
- Memory
- Attention
- Planning and organisation
- Processing speed
Mobility
- Walking and transfers
- Balance and coordination
- Strength
- Use of a wheelchair or other equipment where relevant
Communication
- Speech
- Language
- Social communication
Independence
- Self-care
- Transport and driving
- Daily routines
- Need for assistance
Work
- Returning to the same role
- Hours and reliability
- Earning capacity
- Career direction
Family and household
- Care needs
- Household responsibilities
- Relationships and roles
Future Care
How Are Future Medical and Care Needs Evaluated?
By looking at what the medical evidence supports, over the period it supports it for.
Potential areas evaluated depending on the injury. This is not a treatment pathway and no one follows it as a sequence.
Where the medical evidence supports them, future needs can include specialist care, rehabilitation, physical, occupational and speech therapy, psychological or neuropsychological care, medication, assistive technology, mobility equipment, attendant or caregiver support, home or vehicle modifications, and further procedures. None of these is assumed. Each has to be supported.
What is a life care plan?
In a severe long-term injury case, a qualified professional may be asked to set out the anticipated future medical, rehabilitation, equipment and assistance needs, so that future cost is documented rather than estimated in a conversation.
It is worth being straight about what this is: a life care plan is an evidentiary tool, not a legal requirement. There is no statute and no California jury instruction that requires one. It is used where a case warrants it, and plenty do not.
Work and Earnings
What If I Cannot Return to the Same Work?
Then the claim covers more than the wages already missed.
California distinguishes between earnings actually lost and the loss of the capacity to earn. The second is the broader concept, and the jury instruction on it makes a point worth knowing: it is not necessary to have a work history. Prior earnings are neither a prerequisite for the claim nor a ceiling on it.
That matters for someone injured early in a career, someone who had just changed direction, or someone who was not working at the time. Evidence can include employment and earnings records, medical restrictions, vocational analysis and economic analysis, depending on what is disputed.
Compensation
What Compensation May Be Available?
California separates economic losses, which have a financial measure, from noneconomic losses, which do not.
Economic
Noneconomic
On future losses
Future damages have to be supported by evidence, not assumed from a diagnosis. In practice that means medical opinion, rehabilitation records, vocational and economic analysis, and where appropriate a life care plan. California also requires future economic losses to be reduced to present value, and that burden sits with the defence rather than the injured person.
Case Value
How Much Is a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Case Worth?
A diagnosis alone does not determine case value, and no calculator can tell you what a particular case is worth.
What it depends on: how severe and how permanent the injury is; the strength of the medical evidence; the future care the evidence supports; the effect on work and earning capacity; independence and functional limitation; liability and how clearly it can be established; comparative fault; the insurance and assets available; how many parties are responsible; and whether the case has to be litigated.
One more thing worth saying plainly, because it catches families out in exactly these cases: insurance limits are not the same as case value. A minimum-limits policy can be exhausted by a single surgery, which is why identifying every available policy matters so much here.
Evidence
Evidence That Can Matter in a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Case
Four layers. The first two are familiar from any injury case. The second two are where a neurological case is won or lost.
The Accident
- Photographs and video
- Witness accounts
- Police and investigation records
- Vehicle or property evidence
- Electronic data where available
Medical
- Emergency and hospital records
- Imaging and diagnostic testing
- Specialist evaluations
- Rehabilitation and therapy
- Medication and follow-up treatment
Functional
- Work restrictions
- Daily activities and routines
- Mobility and self-care
- Cognitive and communication effects
- Observations from family and colleagues
Financial and Future
- Earnings and employment history
- Benefits
- Medical projections
- Care and equipment needs
- Household services
Documenting the Injury Beyond the Medical Chart
Records show treatment. They are less good at showing what a day now takes. Where it is appropriate and the person consents, evidence can show how the injury affects mobility, communication, work, family responsibilities and independence in practice.
Done properly this is documentation, not performance. Nothing is staged and nothing is exaggerated, because a case built that way does not survive contact with the other side.
What Experts May Be Involved?
Depending on what is actually disputed, that can include treating physicians, neurologists, neurosurgeons, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation professionals, life care planners, vocational experts, economists, accident reconstruction specialists and biomechanical experts.
Not every case needs every type, and a case does not become stronger by adding experts. What is needed depends on which issues are genuinely contested.
After an Injury
What Should I Do After a Possible Brain or Spinal Injury?
Medical care comes first. Everything else on this list can wait behind it.
- 01Get appropriate medical care
Before anything else on this page.
- 02Seek emergency help for serious neurological symptoms
The danger signs listed near the top of this page mean an emergency department, not a phone call to us.
- 03Follow medical instructions
Including follow-up appointments and referrals.
- 04Preserve information about how the injury happened
Names, photographs, reports — whatever already exists.
- 05Keep medical and rehabilitation records
Including therapy and equipment.
- 06Document the effect on work and finances
Payslips, restrictions, time off.
- 07Preserve photo, video and witness evidence
Contact details fade quickly.
- 08Do not sign a release you have not understood
A final release can end a claim permanently.
- 09Find out which deadline applies
Especially where a public entity may be involved.
- 10Get legal advice for a serious injury
Early enough that the evidence still exists.
Insurers
What If an Insurance Company Contacts Me?
Usually quickly, and usually pleasantly.
Before giving a recorded statement, signing a broad medical authorisation or a release, or accepting a significant settlement, it is worth knowing who is asking, whom they represent, what they are actually requesting, and what it may affect.
A broad authorisation is not the same as a limited one. A release is usually final. And in a case where the full extent of a neurological injury may not be clear for months, settling early can mean settling for a fraction of what the injury turns out to involve.
Our Process
How Burg & Brock Builds a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Case
- 01Understand the incident
The sequence, from the records and the people who were there.
- 02Preserve liability evidence
Before retention schedules and repairs remove it.
- 03Identify responsible parties
Every one of them, not just the obvious.
- 04Identify insurance and assets
Every policy that could apply.
- 05Review medical causation
Connecting the conduct to the diagnosed injury, on the evidence.
- 06Document current functional impact
What has changed day to day.
- 07Evaluate future medical and care needs
Where the medical evidence supports them.
- 08Document earnings and earning capacity
Past losses and future capacity.
- 09Use appropriate experts where needed
Matched to the disputed issues, not added for effect.
- 10Negotiate, and litigate when necessary
Built on documents rather than adjectives.
Comparative Fault
What If I Was Partly Responsible?
California applies pure comparative fault, so partial responsibility reduces a recovery rather than eliminating it.
Illustrative example only
The percentages show how the rule works. They are not a prediction, and no dollar figure is implied. Where more than one defendant is involved, California treats economic and noneconomic damages differently in how responsibility is shared.
Deadlines
How Long Do I Have to File?
California generally allows two years for a personal injury lawsuit.
*This is not a universal deadline. Several circumstances change it, and assuming two years can cost a claim entirely.
Public entities require action much sooner. If a dangerous public roadway, public transit, public property or a government vehicle may be involved, an administrative claim generally has to be presented within six months — long before any lawsuit. Where a claim is rejected, a further short window applies for filing suit, and where no proper notice is given the period is different again.
Medical negligence runs on separate rules with a different limitation period. Other circumstances can shorten or extend the time as well. The only reliable answer is one based on the specific facts, obtained early.
If the Injury Was Fatal
What If a Brain or Spinal Cord Injury Results in Death?
California wrongful death law may give eligible surviving family members their own claim.
Who has the right to bring it is set by statute rather than by closeness of relationship, and a separate claim may also exist on behalf of the person who died. Both are covered on our Los Angeles wrongful death page.
The Attorney Responsible for This Page
Cameron Yadidi Brock
- California State Bar#183112 · licence active
- AdmittedJune 1996
- PracticeSerious and catastrophic personal injury, plaintiff representation
- OfficeSherman Oaks, Los Angeles County
Cameron Yadidi Brock has been licensed to practice law in California since June 1996 and founded the Law Offices of Burg & Brock in Sherman Oaks. He represents people with serious and catastrophic injuries, including those arising from motor vehicle collisions, dangerous property and defective products.
Why Clients Come to Burg & Brock
- 01Personal injury is the practice
Not a department inside a general firm.
- 02Practising in California since 1996
Verifiable through the State Bar.
- 03Serious and catastrophic injury experience
Including commercial vehicle, product and dangerous property matters.
- 04Future-damages evidence
Documenting what an injury will cost over time, not only what it has cost so far.
- 05Contingency representation
Attorney fees are generally tied to obtaining a recovery, under a written fee agreement that sets the terms.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered a traumatic brain injury?
An injury to the brain caused by an external force such as a blow, a jolt, rapid acceleration or deceleration, or a penetrating injury. It does not require a direct blow to the head — a hit to the body can move the head hard enough to cause one.
Is a concussion a traumatic brain injury?
Yes. A concussion is a form of mild traumatic brain injury. Both the CDC and NINDS describe it that way. “Mild” refers to the initial classification, not to how significant the effects turn out to be.
Can you have a brain injury without losing consciousness?
Yes. According to the CDC, most concussions occur without loss of consciousness. Whether someone was knocked out is one factor recorded among others; it is not the test for whether a brain injury occurred.
Can brain injury symptoms appear after the accident?
The CDC notes symptoms may not appear for hours or days afterwards. NINDS explains that beyond the damage at the moment of impact, further changes can develop over hours, days or weeks. A delay is medically recognised.
Is a head injury the same as a brain injury?
No. Head injury describes trauma involving the head — where the impact was. A traumatic brain injury means the brain itself was damaged. Not every blow to the head causes one.
Is every back injury a spinal cord injury?
No, and the distinction matters. Injuries to vertebrae, discs, ligaments or muscles are injuries to the structures around the cord. A spinal cord injury involves damage to the cord tissue itself, which is what can affect movement, sensation and other functions.
What is the difference between complete and incomplete spinal cord injury?
At a general level, a complete injury involves the loss of essentially all movement and feeling below the level of injury, while an incomplete injury leaves some function. NICHD notes there are many degrees of incomplete injury. Which applies is a clinical assessment made by treating professionals.
Does a normal scan mean there is no brain injury?
No. NINDS states that currently available and clinically validated imaging, blood tests and other measures cannot always detect damage from mild concussive injuries. Imaging is one part of the picture, and a normal result does not settle the question either way.
Can I make a claim if I had a pre-existing condition?
Potentially. A pre-existing condition does not automatically end a claim. The question is generally whether the incident caused a new injury or aggravated an existing one. It does not make a responsible party liable for unrelated health problems.
Can I recover lost earning capacity?
It is a recognised category in California, and it is broader than wages already lost. The jury instruction notes it is not necessary to have a work history, and prior earnings are neither a prerequisite nor a cap. It has to be supported by evidence.
How are future medical expenses handled?
They have to be supported by evidence rather than assumed from a diagnosis, and California requires future economic losses to be reduced to present value. In practice these claims are built from medical opinion, treatment records and, where a case warrants it, expert analysis.
What is a life care plan?
A document in which a qualified professional sets out anticipated future medical, rehabilitation, equipment and assistance needs. It is an evidentiary tool used where a case warrants it — there is no statute or California jury instruction requiring one, and not every case needs one.
How long do I have to file a California injury lawsuit?
Generally two years, but that is not universal. Claims involving a public entity generally require an administrative claim within six months, long before any lawsuit. Medical negligence runs on separate rules. The deadline should be checked against the specific facts early.
How much is a brain or spinal cord injury case worth?
A diagnosis alone does not determine value, and no online calculator can answer it. It depends on severity and permanence, the medical evidence, future care, effect on work and earning capacity, liability, comparative fault, available insurance and assets, and whether litigation is needed.
How much does a serious injury lawyer cost?
Burg & Brock handle qualifying serious injury matters on a contingency-fee basis, which means attorney fees are generally tied to obtaining a recovery. The written fee agreement sets the actual terms, and the first conversation costs nothing.
Related Services
Other Ways We Help
Vehicle AccidentsCar, truck and commercial collisions.
Motorcycle AccidentsWhere head and spine injuries are common.
Uber & Lyft AccidentsRideshare coverage questions.
Slip, Trip & FallDangerous property conditions.
Product LiabilityDefective products and components.
Wrongful DeathWhere an injury proves fatal.
Burn InjuriesSerious burn and scarring claims.
Free Consultation
Talk to a Los Angeles Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
If a serious brain or spinal cord injury was caused by another person, a company, a dangerous condition or a defective product, we can investigate responsibility and develop the evidence needed to evaluate both what has happened and what lies ahead.
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